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When was the last time you were out late at night under a dark sky? I and 7 other members of the photography club ventured up to Fremont Peak to marvel at and photograph stars, planets, our galaxy, and each other. We arrived in time to see the sun set into a sea of fog....
and then trooped up to the observatory to wait for the sky to blacken and stars to emerge. On moonless nights the observatory stays open until midnight for campers, amateur astronomers, and photographers to peer into the universe. This first photo was taken at 9:30, before the sky was completely black. Look closely and you'll see both the Big and Little Dippers.
When was the last time you were out late at night under a dark sky? I and 7 other members of the photography club ventured up to Fremont Peak to marvel at and photograph stars, planets, our galaxy, and each other. We arrived in time to see the sun set into a sea of fog....
and then trooped up to the observatory to wait for the sky to blacken and stars to emerge. On moonless nights the observatory stays open until midnight for campers, amateur astronomers, and photographers to peer into the universe. This first photo was taken at 9:30, before the sky was completely black. Look closely and you'll see both the Big and Little Dippers.
By 10 o'clock the sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way. I cannot look at it without feeling reverence, appreciation, and a bit bewitched. I veer toward the poetic.
One Hundred BillionPinpricks of Glittering Light
Marvelous Milky Way
(I'm taking an online writing class and the last assignment
was to create Haiku)
The final hour of the night, we practiced photographing star trails. To get really long, clear star trails requires taking a series of exposures (like 20 or more) and then blending them into one image. I don't have the skill or the patience to tackle that, so I left the shutter open for 30 minutes and hoped for the best. During that 30 minutes, I leaned back and gazed at the sky, spotting several shooting stars. I liked the image that resulted, but I had to clean out a lot of noise (colored pixels) caused by the long exposure. Do you know why one star (toward the upper right of the frame) does not have a trail? That star (Polaris) and a sextant will tell you where you are in the world: the first GPS system.
This photo of me and a few of my nocturnal comradeswas taken just before we left at midnight.
I learned a valuable (think expensive) lesson on the walk back to the car: take the time to securely stow your camera gear. I didn't and when I adjusted the bag on my shoulder, my camera flew out and hit the asphalt hard. Fortunately, an edge of the lens took the brunt of the impact (shattering the UV filter). I am hopeful that everything still works, but the filter is so dented I can't get it off the lens to check it all out.
I veer towards the poetic too and I LOVED your haiku. Standing under a star studded night like that makes me reverent too. Beautiful night shots!
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